Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Sonny Phillips was born on December 7, 1936 in Mobile, Alabama. Phillips began playing jazz organ after hearing Jimmy Smith in his twenties. He studied under Ahmad Jamal, and played in the 1960s and 1970s with Lou Donaldson, Nicky Hill, Eddie Harris, Houston Person, and Gene Ammons.
His debut album Sure ‘Nuff was released on the Prestige Records label in 1969. He released several records as a leader in the Seventies before suffering a long illness in 1980. He also recorded twenty-three albums as a sideman with Harris, Person, Ammons, Rusty Bryant, Billy Butler, Willis Jackson, Etta Jones, Boogaloo Joe Jones and Bernard Purdie.
Electric organist and pianist Sonny Phillips went into semi-retirement after suffering a long illness. He moved to Los Angeles, California and has since performed and taught occasionally.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Kansas Fields was born Carl Donnell Fields on December 5, 1915 in Chapman, Kansas and first played in Chicago, Illinois from the late Twenties and worked with King Kolax and Jimmie Noone in the 1930s. In 1940 he joined Roy Eldridge’s group for a year and returned to play with Eldridge again later in the decade.
He briefly led his own ensemble and played with Ella Fitzgerald and Benny Carter before joining the Marines during World War II. After the war, Kansas played with Cab Calloway, Claude Hopkins, Sidney Bechet, Dizzy Gillespie, and Eldridge again before the close of the decade.
Forming another group early in the 1950s, he then played with Mezz Mezzrow in Europe in 1953. Fields stayed in Europe for more than a decade, relocating to France where he worked as a sideman. In 1965, he returned to Chicago, working once more with Gillespie and doing studio work.
Drummer and bandleader Kansas Fields transitioned on March 7, 1995 in Chicago.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Charles Burchell was born in London, England on October 30, 1925 and began learning the ukulele, then guitar. Then he heard an Artie Shaw record that inspired him to take up the clarinet and play jazz. Switching to alto saxophone, he started his own quintet in 1943, then tried tenor saxophone before he was drafted into the Royal Air Force. Transferred to the army in 1944, he played in Greece with the British Divisional Band.
Following his discharge in 1947 Charles worked in London with the Toni Antone Big Band. By 1949 he had given up full-time musicianship for work in a factory in order to not perform music he did not like in order to make a living.
A disciple of Lennie Tristano and a devoted admirer of Warne Marsh, he continued to play part-time, leading his own quintet for more than 20 years. Burchell has guested with Clark Terry, Emily Remler and Nathan Davis, and recording for Peter Ind’s Wave label. He played with Ind in the group that supported Tristano on his only UK concert, at Harrogate in 1968.
Saxophonist Charles Burchell, who went by Chas and has been touted as one of the great unsung heroes of British jazz, transitioned from a heart attack on June 3, 1986.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Alicia Cunningham was born Alicia Rodriguez of Mexican heritage on October 5, 1946 in Los Angeles, California. A classically trained vocalist and pianist, she worked in the L.A. studios and as an educator at Loyola University in her early years.
Meeting her husband Don was fortuitous when he moved to Los Angeles in the early 70s. Their combination of his jazz-influenced energetic singing style and Alicia’s fluid, clear and lyrical sound, established a solid reputation. This would lead to a tour with Count Basie in Europe for five months at major events and jazz festivals in England and Switzerland.
She was an intricate and melodic harmonizer and arranger and paired with the Cunningham stage presentation, they offered enormous panache. They not only kept her hometown audiences satisfied but they traveled around the country and the world thrilling listeners in Europe, Canada, Singapore, Brazil, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea.
In 2012, they released their final album together titled Sao Paulo Lights that was recorded in Brazil. In the autumn of 2014, Alicia made her last performance in St. Louis when Don received a St. Louis Jazz Hall of Fame Award.
Vocalist Alicia Cunningham, who sang hard jazz, transitioned in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 23, 2014 at the age of 68 after battling cancer for a year.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
George Matthews was born on September 23, 1912 in Dominica, British West Indies and received classical training in New York City and played with local dance and jazz bands. In the early 1930s he joined Tiny Bradshaw’s group, being adept on tuba, trumpet, and trombone.
Later in the decade he worked with Willie Bryant, Louis Armstrong, Chick Webb, and in the Forties he recorded with Ella Fitzgerald, Lucky Millinder, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. After World War II, Matthews worked extensively with Count Basie, then joined Erskine Hawkins’s group in the early 1950s, while recording with Dizzy Gillespie, and Dicky Wells. In the 1960s he played with Lucille Dixon, Clark Terry, and recorded with Cannonball Adderley and Ray Charles in the Sixties.
Trombonist George Matthews, who never led a recording session, transitioned on June 28, 1982.
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